We're posting a new section (for camh.ca) on Gambling, Gaming and Technology Use. You can still visit the original pages with the resources until these are up and running. In the meantime, please consider this upcoming event. 

CAMH’s Gambling Policy Framework: A Public Health Approach to Problem Gambling

Thursday, March 27th, 2025 from 1PM–2PM Eastern Standard Time 

This webinar will explore CAMH’s Gambling Policy Framework, which advocates for a public health approach to problem gambling. The public health approach focuses on addressing the broader context gambling takes place in, with the goal of modifying environmental factors to reduce risk of gambling-related harms. We will contrast this approach with the responsible gambling model, which focuses on individual characteristics that increase risk and providing tools for safer gambling behaviors.

Additionally, the webinar will delve into the brain science supporting the shift to a public health approach, highlighting how gambling behaviours are influenced by environmental, biological, and psychological factors that complicate the concept of ‘responsibility.’ This session will help practitioners make connections between gambling policy, brain science, and their own practice—offering insights on how a public health approach can create more sustainable, systemic change in gambling policy and services.

This presentation is intended for mental health and addictions service providers. 

Register

Learning objectives:

By the end of this webinar, learners will be able to:

• Recall the key elements of CAMH’s Gambling Policy Framework and its recommendations for a public health approach to problem gambling;
• Explain the differences between the public health approach and the responsible gambling model.
• Recognize links between the brain science of problem gambling and the evidence-based public health approach to gambling policy.

Presenters:

• Jean-François (JF) Crépault leads CAMH’s public policy efforts in the area of substance use and addictions, developing and communicating evidence-based public policy to government and other stakeholders. JF wrote the CAMH Gambling Policy Framework, which made recommendations for a public health approach to gambling. He is also a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health, where his research focuses on public health approaches to the regulation of psychoactive substances.
• Dr. Daniela Lobo is the Addictions Curriculum Coordinator for the Psychiatry Residency Program at the University of Toronto. Dr. Lobo has been the medical lead for the Problem Gambling and Technology Use Service at CAMH since 2009.  She completed her residency in psychiatry and her PhD at the University of São Paulo (São Paulo, Brazil), and also completed the addictions fellowship program at the University of Toronto.